Review by Ian Keogh

With such riches to choose from among Franco-Belgian comics, the majority of Cinebook’s translations have been classic mid-20th century material, so the Ducoboo series is a relative rarity, Belgian creators Godi (Bernard Godisiabois) and Zidrou (Benoit Drousie) only issuing the first album in 1997. Cinebook don’t start with that, though, instead opting for the fifth, by which time Ducoboo was an established Franco-Belgian favourite.

The King of the Dunces subtitle doesn’t quite tell the entire story. Academically Ducoboo definitely isn’t the brightest, with the series theme being his forever trying to copy test answers from the smart Leonie, but when it comes to schemes for doing so he displays an astonishingly agile mind. In that way he’d be at home in The Beano, an impression heightened by his distinctive hooped jersey, a perpetually frustrated teacher and strips never occupying more than two pages. Well, apart from one set on April Fools Day running to four pages.

As the strip has run for a while, certain themes are regular, such as Leonie’s increasingly complex attempts to prevent Ducoboo copying her test answers and Ducoboo inadvertently learning some matters as he sleeps. However, a joke never explained in this collection is the frequent appearance of a skeleton that talks with Ducoboo. Readers of the earlier strips published in France have presumably been given an explanation, and English readers may with the next volume, as In the Corner! jumps back to the second in the series.

Ducoboo is a strip with no internal consistently other than Ducoboo avoiding any kind of schoolwork. As long as no schoolwork is involved, Godi is happy to make him smart enough to outwit the teacher, and these are some of the funniest strips. Zidrou’s cartooning, though, is excellent throughout if you accept massively disproportionate eyes on everyone. While he can get away with no backgrounds in most strips as they’re set in a classroom, when a script calls for something more, like Ducoboo on a bulldozer, Zidrou delivers the full spectacle.

On the basis of King of the Dunces, all the elements are in place for Ducoboo to become as popular in the UK as in Europe, but inconsistency holds it back. Godi can be brilliantly inventive on one strip, and for the next fall back on something obvious or tired. The good strips outweigh the bad, but improved quality control is needed.